Stolen tokens worth $10.55 million from the Mercado Bitcoin breach were sold for ETH, while a Bitcoin bridge transfer of around $650,000 appears to have stalled. The exchange has paused withdrawals and has no date to restart them.
Wallets tied to the Mercado Bitcoin breach sold $10.55 million in stolen tokens for ETH, Crypto Briefing reported. The attacker swapped more than 136 different tokens into Ether between November 3 and 4.
Estimates of the total value converted range from approximately $10.55 million to $11.9 million. The bridge leg went less smoothly: a transfer worth around $650,000 to BTC appears halted, described as a failed attempt.
Arkham traces the sales through MetaMask
Blockchain analytics firm Arkham reported on Nov. 4 that wallets attributed to the attacker sold tokens for about 4,605 ETH through MetaMask's swap router. Arkham also said $13.26 million in tokens and ETH left its labelled wallets in 115 transfers to 23 outside addresses over the preceding day.
Swapping into ETH has a practical logic. Unlike centrally issued stablecoins, Ether has no company that can freeze it on request, Crypto Briefing wrote. Tether and Circle, by contrast, were among the issuers that froze more than $11 million in stablecoins tied to the incident.
Breach losses and paused withdrawals
The attack hit on November 2, 2026, when attackers drained funds from hot wallets and customer deposit addresses across more than 10 blockchains. Mercado Bitcoin's preliminary figures put losses at around $38 million, while independent analyses suggested the total could be as high as $49 million.
On Nov. 3, the exchange gave a different measure. Its update valued affected assets at $36.3 million and said $12.9 million had been blocked.
Mercado Bitcoin has committed to refunding affected users. It also said it had no date for restarting withdrawals.
Sources: Crypto Briefing, The Defiant
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